Over the past few years, fast food restaurant owners have discovered the growing benefits of self ordering kiosks. A kiosk is an in-store customer-facing kiosk that enables shoppers to place orders and pay without interacting with store employees. Most commonly, these machines are found in quick service restaurants, but merchants across retail chains, hospitality, and other industries are also beginning to adopt this technology en masse.
To make this process seamless, the restaurant kiosk is often linked with your POS (Point of Sale) system, the kitchen display system, the kitchen printer, and the payment processor. So far, restaurant kiosks have proven effective in most fast food establishments with research indicating that about 65 Percent of customers prefer restaurant kiosk over traditional ordering systems.
Since Covid-19 struck, self ordering kiosks' popularity has increased exponentially. With more customers sensitive to social distancing for health purposes, having a self service kiosk has become the new normal in fast-casual restaurants. That notwithstanding, having a restaurant kiosk delivers numerous other benefits, including reduced labor costs, improved order efficiency, and better customer experience.
Let’s take a deeper dive into the benefits of self ordering kiosks and the factors you should consider when selecting the ideal kiosk for your business.
What is a self ordering kiosk?
A self-ordering kiosk is a digital device, usually free-standing, which is most commonly found in fast casual and quick service restaurants. The kiosk traditionally displays your menu to your customers, enabling them to choose items in an a la carte fashion, and pay conveniently for their entire order without having to interact with a cashier.
Many kiosks integrate directly into your point-of-sale system to ensure the process to track orders end-to-end is as smooth as possible. This integration guarantees a restaurant's operations are streamlined, ensuring that orders submitted from a customer are forwarded without error to the back-of-house for production.
Why are restaurant owners implementing kiosks in their businesses?
Every modern order-at-the-counter joint needs to know the importance of having an ordering kiosk. A fast food kiosk will not only streamline your operations but also lead to an improvement in overall customer satisfaction. Let’s explore some of the benefits you can expect from investing in kiosk technology.
1. Increase revenue, decrease labor costs
2. Manage devices seamlessly across multiple store locations
3. Improve average order value
4. Improve order accuracy and wait times
5. Improve customer experience
6. Promote in-store marketing
7. Improve customer and staff safety
With diminished customer-staff interactions, these types of self-service machines promote an environment that protects and improves the health of staff and customers. Read More